NEW YORK - ABC News rescinded its invitation to conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart to participate in an election night town hall event, which was streamed live on ABCNews.com from the Arizona State University campus Tuesday evening, according to the New York Times.

In a Tuesday afternoon letter to Breitbart, who runs a series of conservative Web sites and had already arrived in Phoenix, the executive producer for ABC News Digital, Andrew Morse, said: "We feel it best for you not to participate."

News of Breitbart’s role last week had causes an online backlash, the Times reported.

ABC initially downplayed Breitbart’s role, emphasizing that he would appear only online and that he was not being paid. But Breitbart in response published ABC’s original invitation and said that " the verbal pitch to me to participate was punctuated by the opportunity to appear as part of ABC News' broadcast television for the night."